Recipe

Pennsylvania Birch Beer Recipe

Add Step-by-Step Photos	Lacrenshaw / All my dishes 11 months, 3 weeks ago This recipe is being posted as a result of a "challenge" issued by someone who shall remain nameless (you know who you are). The creamy "soda" made famous by the Pennsylvania Dutch Beverage Company, birch has always been a favorite kids' drink at com... More Prep:60m Cook:10m Servings:50	Lacrenshaw
	honey yeast birch beverage

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Ingredients

5 gallon crock

4 quarts finely cut sweet birch twigs

1 gallon honey

4 gallons birch sap

1 cake soft yeast

1 slice toasted rye bread

Directions

Measure 4 quarts of finely cut twigs of sweet birch into the bottom of a 5-gallon crock.

In a large kettle, boil together the honey and birch sap for 10 minutes.

Pour over chopped twigs.

When cool, strain to remove the twigs.

Return to the crock.

Spread cake of soft yeast on the slice of toasted rye bread.

Float on top of the beer in the crock.

Cover with a cloth.

Let ferment until the cloudiness just starts to settle, about a week but it depends somewhat on temperature.

Bottle the beer and cap tightly.

Store in a dark place and serve it cold after the weather gets hot.

It should stand in the bottles about 3 months before using.

If opened too soon, it will foam all over and pop worse than champagne.

**This is not a drink for children (I always had it!).

**Sweet Birch, also called Black Birch... Sweet birch or Cherry birch has a fragrant bark and twigs that smell of wintergreen. The sap flows about a month later than maple and much faster than maple. You tap the trees the same as maple but must gather about 3 times as often.

**The sap also can be boiled the same as maple but the syrup is much stronger, more like molasses.

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Comments

juels 11 months, 3 weeks ago said:
Sounds like it would come out really good! all I have to do now, is locate the ingredients! Where do you get birch sap and sweet birch twigs?

lacrenshaw 11 months, 3 weeks ago said:
Therein lies the rub, Julia. We have a birch tree right in front of our house but who can tell if it's a "sweet" birch or not. And where in the world would you find 4 GALLONS of birch sap! My dad's company used to have a picnic every year for employees and their families at an amusement park about an hour's drive away. They supplied all of the food and beer keg for the adults but a keg of birch for the kids! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

linspj 11 months, 3 weeks ago said:
My brother used to love birch beer as a kid. Yeah, where do you find those things? A lost forgotten soda!

lacrenshaw 11 months, 3 weeks ago said:
Guess ya just think, "good luck" and throw this one away, lin. lol

bobbyc0117 11 months, 3 weeks ago said:
Lorraine, it's a great recipe keep it and remember our bygone youth, then go to www.midwestsupplies.com and search birch beer and order the extract from there.That way there is no finding sweet birch twigs, and messing with sap. The extract makes a really good old time birch beer. The recipe gets my 5 since it is identical to my Grandmas.

lacrenshaw 11 months, 3 weeks ago said:
Yo ho, bobby! You are truly a godsend! I can't even believe that your Grandma used this recipe! Birch has such a glorious smooth texture on the tongue and a cooling,almost(pleasantly)medicinal finish in the throat. I can't even begin to imagine myself soaking twigs, tapping sap, etc. Thanks very much for the website, bobby. Believe me, I'm THERE! And, of course, thanks for the five too.
Lorraine

lovebreezy 11 months, 2 weeks ago said:
Lorraine, I have the rye bread and the crock – so I’m on my way!!!!! Okay, so I may have to cut the recipe down and even resort to checking out Bobby’s Mid-West Supplies but it will be an adventure. Thanks for posting this, my new favorite friend. Nameless ;-)

22566 11 months, 2 weeks ago said:
This would always have me volunteering to be the one retrieving the vegetables from the root cellar.~~~Come Spring~~~No more Birch Beer!
I'm the one setting in the corner looking innocent,with my halo askew.

Very nice recipe.

Thank-you

Kind Regards

lacrenshaw 11 months, 2 weeks ago said:
If I had access to a crock, I'd be started already, breezy. Where does one find a 5-gallon crock? The midwestsupply.com is a pretty cool site. Let me know if you really make it, OK? Thanks,
Lorraine

lacrenshaw 11 months, 2 weeks ago said:
LOL, me too! 22566, we must be a whole lot alike. Enjoy!
Lorraine

madmommy 11 months, 2 weeks ago said:
Lorraine, my family and I head out to Lancaster county quite a bit. In the summer, at one of the many Amish/Mennonite roadside stands, there waiting for us is a bottle of homemade birch beer, in a ray of sunlight as if ordained by the heavens that we purchase it...lol...and we ALWAYS do. There is nothing better. Fantastic share - ^^^^5555!!

lacrenshaw 11 months, 2 weeks ago said:
Ha ha.. I just hope that ray of sunlight isn't warming that birch too much, mad. It is a cool recipe, isn't it? Enjoy it.
Lorraine

conner909 9 months, 3 weeks ago said:
You're right, Lorraine, we drank Birch Beer at picnics as kids in western New York! I rarely see it here on the west coast, but love it! Thanks for the post.

lacrenshaw 9 months, 3 weeks ago said:
The only almost-reasonable substitute for keg birch I have found is Stewart's Birch Beer. It is a very passable birch but still lacks that oh-so-familiar bite of the real stuff. Glad you enjoyed the post, conner!
Lorraine

cabincrazyone 9 months, 2 weeks ago said:
I've sat under birch trees for a lifetime, but never heard of tapping them. It must be an Eastern thing. In Mn we get maple sap and firewood from trees. Not much more. lol
Sounds like a great elixir.

lacrenshaw 9 months, 2 weeks ago said:
You've never had a soft drink like birch beer, especially PA birch beer. If you can get hold of some you'd be a happy camper, CC1. We DO do the maple sap thing but mostly in the Northeast, not mid-Atlantic. You enjoy your birch trees. We have one in front of our house that I dearly love!
Lorraine

magnoliasouth 8 months, 4 weeks ago said:
This sounds absolutely amazing! I sure wish I had had this recipe when I lived in Alaska! I could've done it fully homemade because that place is loaded with birch trees. Sadly here on the gulf coast, we don't really have them.

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